Whether we recognize it or not, we are all negotiators. Many will say negotiations makes them uncomfortable, they don’t like to haggle over prices (like at a car dealership), they are just not good at it, etc. But we do it more than we realize in personal and professional situations, so why not get it right?
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton (starting with the 2nd edition) was originally published in 1981 and serves as one of the original primers on how to negotiate. With updates and tweaks, it has once again jumped to the top of bestseller lists, including the Washington Post. It uses strategies from the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School and has been read by millions and translated into 25 languages. It’s intuitive to think of attorneys as beinf masterful negotiators, but it’s a necessary skill for business owners (for example: rates and fees for clients, contract terms with vendors, dates and deadlines) and employees (for example: salary, benefits, responsibilities).
While some approaches may seem a bit basic, the main take-away here is to get to a point where everyone feels like a winner. Diplomacy wins over bullying and caving in.
One of the authors, William Ury sums it up like this:
In Getting to Yes, you’ll learn how to:
Separate the people from the problem
Focus on interests, not positions
Work together to create opinions that will satisfy both parties
Negotiate successfully with people who are more powerful, refuse to play by the rules, and/or resort to “dirty tricks”
Grab this practical easy-reader from Amazon.com for pennies and use your newfound diplomatic skills for the next big deal.
Leisa Chester Weir
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